TV programs may no longer be recorded and stored on the Internet for a fee. This has been decided by a German court.
According to a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice, so-called Internet video recorders infringe broadcasters' copyrights. The judges thus ruled in favor of the German private broadcaster RTL.
The broadcaster had sued the provider Netlantic for injunctive relief. Netlantic provides a web-based video recorder for recording broadcasts for a monthly fee. However, as the Federal Court of Justice has now confirmed in its ruling, only the broadcasting companies themselves are permitted to make their broadcasts publicly accessible.

The agency Cayenne Communication Visuelle has developed a campaign for Loterie Romande entitled "Une Croix en Plus". It advertises Swiss Lotto and the "Plus" supplementary game. Mediaedge:cia is responsible for strategy, planning and media buying.
The campaign can be seen on TV, on posters, in the press, on the Internet, on Teletext and in cinemas until mid-June and then again after the summer vacation.
Responsible at Sciété de la Loterie Romande: Véronique Chassot (Head of Advertising and Media), Lucia Ottet-Constatino (Product Manager Draw Games). Responsible at Cayenne Communication Visuelle: Jeam-Christophe Delisle. Responsible at Mediaedge:cia Switzerland: Frédéric Zamofing, Vera Presas. Film production: Freestudios SA (Marco Da Costa).

Schreibszene Schweiz is looking for the most beautiful poems, incidents and short stories on the theme of "Jahresrauschen". The winning texts will be printed on postcards. There is also a fine Pelikan fountain pen, a Schreibszene voucher and book vouchers to be won. The jury is made up of authors Judith Stadlin and Michael van Orsouw alias Salz & Pfeffer, Marianne Weissberg, Blanca Imboden and Fatima Vidal (Schreibszene.ch).
The deadline for entries is June 1, 2009. Further information is available at Writingcontest.ch.

Springer Verlag is doing well: Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner announced a large-scale share program for employees at the annual general meeting. Up to 8,000 Springer employees will each receive four shares as a gift. In view of the record figures for 2008, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board proposed a record dividend of 4.40 euros per share.
Döpfner himself and publisher's widow Friede Springer benefit from this. Both own large blocks of shares. Those of the eligible employees who invest their entire annual bonus in shares receive an additional 30 percent from the Group. Those who request half of their bonus in shares receive an additional 15 percent. The four free shares per employee alone cost the Group around 1.8 million euros with 8,000 entitled employees and currently around 58 euros per share.
Döpfner also proudly presented the previously announced Group figures for 2008, which he said had been the best year in the company's history. Profits had risen to 571 million euros and turnover to 2.7 billion euros. The Bild Group achieved its sixth record result in a row, not least thanks to another price increase, and the Welt Group was also able to increase its profits once again.
According to Döpfner, 14 percent of Axel Springer's revenue already comes from digital business. In ten years at the latest, it should be at least 50 percent. He repeated his announcement that he intends to make anti-cyclical acquisitions in the near future. Both online investments and acquisitions of newspapers are possible.
Prior to the annual general meeting, Döpfner had already described the Bild newspaper, Springer Verlag's mainstay, as a winner in the crisis.

Neutral Zurich has developed a limited product range entitled Reality Series together with Puma. According to the agency's press release, the aim is to establish the Puma brand in fashion magazines and stores and make it a topic in the fashion and art world. The Reality Series is a series of collaborations between artists and designers to develop limited editions that are integrated into existing product lines.
Available from May, Reality Bag no. 2 was designed by Swiss artist John Armleder, who is also responsible for the bag's contents. The bag was launched in December 2008 at Art Basel Miami Beach in partnership with the Rubel Family Collection and the 30 Americans exhibition. The global campaign was photographed by American artists Hank Willis Thomas and Rashid Johnson. Neutral Zurich is responsible for the worldwide distribution and sale of the limited Reality Series products to selected dealers and galleries.
Responsible at Puma International: Benoit Duverger (Creative Director of Brand Communications). Responsible at Neutral Zurich: Michelle Nicol (curation & overall responsibility), Rudolph Schürmann (CD & overall responsibility), Kristina Milkovic (AD), Sibylle Kaelin, Sandra Oehy (consulting).

Reality Bag.

The furniture manufacturer Moyard has awarded its entire global communications budget to the Lausanne agency Agence Trio. In order to redefine the brand's image and increase brand awareness, Trio has now opted for a hybrid of modernity and antiquity for its first advertising measures. Classically elegant and yet extremely surprising was the motto.
The result is three subjects that are intended to inspire not only the eye but also the mind, as the agency writes in a press release on Thursday. The subjects can be seen in the press and on posters.
Responsible at Moyard SA: Jean Winkler, Mathieu Winkler. Responsible at Agence Trio: Guido Masson (CD), Jérôme Bardin (graphics), Sabine Dufaux (strategy and media planning).

The Sunday newspaper's Babushka campaign, which has already won several awards, is entering its second round. The topics this time: beauty cult, extremism and hopeful Obama. The ads, developed by Advico Young&Rubicam, have been appearing in the most important Swiss-German print titles since the beginning of April.
Responsible at the SonntagsZeitung: Diego Quintarelli (publishing director) and Andrea Waltzer (advertising director). Responsible at AY&R: Philipp Skrabal (ECD), Christian Bobst (CD/AD), Martin Stulz (text), Lukas Wietlisbach (graphics), Marcel Mägerle and Manuela Wettstein (consulting). Photography/Composing: Scheffold.Vizner/Fluxif.

SRG is pushing ahead with media convergence: the Board of Directors has now appointed the project managers. Under their leadership, the systematic cooperation between the various company units that was decided in March will be organized.
On Wednesday, Gérard Tschopp, Director of Radio Suisse Romande (RSR), was appointed overall project manager. He will remain in his position at RSR until media convergence is implemented in Suisse Romande. Tschopp is responsible for planning, monitoring and implementing the overall project. Two weeks ago, he was also elected to the Board of Directors of Publisuisse.
Stephan Giachino has been appointed head of the "Optimization of support processes" sub-project. Giachino has proven himself as project manager for HKLR (harmonized cost-performance accounting), as SRG writes in its press release on Wednesday.
Gilles Marchand, Director of Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR), has been appointed head of the convergence project in Suisse Romande. Under his leadership, a team of executives from RSR and TSR will be put together. In German-speaking Switzerland, the Board of Directors of SRG Deutschschweiz will define the project organization by the end of May and appoint the project management by the end of June. In Italian-speaking Switzerland, the project is already being implemented under the leadership of Director Dino Balestra.
Gérard Tschopp and Stephan Giachino will begin their work at the start of May and start planning the project activities and setting up the national project organization. The project teams in the regions will draw up a detailed project report with proposals for future services, structures and processes. This will be followed by the invitation to tender and the election of directors in the regions. In Suisse Romande, implementation of the projects is expected to begin at the start of 2010; in German-speaking Switzerland, implementation will begin in 2011 due to the size and more complex structures.

On March 18, the SRG Board of Directors approved the company-wide objectives and framework conditions for the "Media Convergence and Efficiency" project. In order to facilitate systematic cooperation, the corporate units still separated into radio and television in Suisse Romande and German-speaking Switzerland, such as Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI) and Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha (RTR), are to be merged into a single linguistic-regional corporate unit. The aim is to take account of the different markets and cultures, ensure journalistic diversity and retain the main locations.

Jens Brecht will replace Andrea Schön as Head of Electronic Media at Aegis Media Group Switzerland in the middle of the year. He will lead the seven-member team responsible for planning and purchasing work for the clients of the Aegis Media agencies Carat and Vizeum. According to a letter from the agency on Wednesday, Brecht brings with him eight years of experience in leading international media networks and on the media supplier side in Germany and Switzerland. In his last position at Mediabrands (Initiative Media and Universal McCann), he was already responsible for electronic media as Head of Electronic Media. Brecht has a degree in marketing communications.

They call themselves "Zurich's most creative provincial agency" - but they are anything but unworldly. For an international client such as Deutsche Post, +söhne have just been able to realize a special kind of gadget: A high-quality leather notebook was produced in a completely climate-neutral way. This means that all emissions generated during production were calculated and offset by benefiting an ecological project. The paper bears the FSC seal of approval and the leather was made from leather remnants.
High quality and environmentally friendly at the same time - this has long been a credo at Tobias Weber and Florian Ingold's agency. The two founded their agency in 2003 as a team of AD and CD. Today, the sons employ five people. They deliberately work in Winterthur because this cultural metropolis in Zurich is somewhat removed from the mainstream. What's more, they can easily cycle to work from their loft on the former Sulzer site. "+söhne are climate neutral" is emblazoned on their letterhead. And their entry in the leading non-profit foundation Myclimate.org has now also earned the sons this commission from Deutsche Post.
The goal of making advertising as environmentally friendly as possible was also the idea behind an assignment for Nabholz. In an old school gymnasium, +söhne breathed new life into "the oldest sports brand in the world". The focus was on classic gymnastics equipment such as the rings, the horizontal bar and the horse. These subjects became eye-catchers in an elegant fan, which is now being circulated as an unconventional fall/winter 09/10 catalog. A genuine linoleum gym floor serves as the front and back. The basic idea was to recycle real old floors, just like the trendy Freitag bags. However, as such a purist approach to the material would have been more expensive and probably also more harmful to the environment than printing new linoleum, the more cost-effective option has now been chosen. In return, the Winterthur-based company is paying a little more to Myclimate for this project. "However, we are not handing over money in the sense of trading indulgences," says Florian Ingold. "We want to be perceived as a committed climate-neutral agency."
Andreas Panzeri